Dead as a Doornail

Coming down off the better books in the series - Club Dead and Dead to the World - Dead as a Doornail is pretty dull. The central plotline - if it can be even said to have one - is not very tight or interesting, and there's too much unnecessary information. Normally, I like that Charlaine Harris keeps us grounded in Sookie's day to day life, but there was too much of that and not enough forward moving action. This book seems to exist more for the purpose of developing the relationships with the men in Sookie's life, which is interesting enough, but without a proper story to support that, the book doesn't really hold up as a complete work.

OK. Sookie Stackhouse books are not very far removed from porn. Vampirism is, of course, a metaphor for sex. And the way Sookie interacts with vampires and other supes is very porn like. She meets one, finds him attractive, 15 minutes later, he's licking her (as in licking blood off an open wound). I'm just saying.

💬: "Just when I thought I was used to them, vampires would show me their true face, and I would have to remind myself all over again that they were a different race. Or maybe it was centuries of conditioning that made the difference; decades of disposing of people as they chose, taking what they wanted, enduring the dichotomy of being the most powerful beings on earth in the darkness, and yet completely helpless and vulnerable during the hours of light."

Harris, Charlaine. Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse Book 5) (p. 226). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: adult, paranormal, paranormal romance, vampires, shifters, werewolves, urban fantasy, mystery

📚Page Count: 293

🎧Audiobook Length: 10h 03min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 2.75/5

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TW - <spoiler>Alcohol, Death, Murder, Gore, Animal cruelty, Grief, Car accident, Hate crime, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body horror, Cursing, Animal death, Blood, and Stalking</spoiler>

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris is the 5th book in the Sookie Stackhouse Vampire Mystery series. In this installment of the series Sookie's brother, Jason, is suspected of being a sniper in the area that's targeting the were and changeling people. Sookie takes it upon herself to try and find out who the shooter is, to clear her brother's name, and to avenge some acquaintances who were killed by the sniper. There is more abuse from Bill in this novel, there's victim blaming, and there's a predictable mystery. Other than these issues, the story was okay.

TW -<spoiler>rape, sexual assault</spoiler>

There's a scene in here where Bill hurts Sookie again, and afterwards the <spoiler>sexual assault or rape that was perpetrated onto Sookie by Bill (in book 3) was finally address and brought up by Alcied. All Alcied says about the situation though is that Sookie was assaulted by Bill and that he personally doesn't like Bill. Sookie then contemplates about what makes her different from other sexual assault victims. She decides that she's no different from other victims but she excuses Bill's behavior by saying he was taken over by bloodlust and that he wouldn't have hurt her otherwise. </spoiler> Bill ends up grabbing and bruising Sookie's arm because he's too busy fighting with <spoiler>Sam to rein himself in.</spoiler> He apologizes and leaves and we see him only one other time and in this novel and that's perfect for me because bill is a jerk.

A friend of Sookie's, Tera, get's herself involved with a dangerous vampire. This vampire lured in and took advantage of Tera and after Tera has been beatin' and sexually assaulted by this vampire and his friends, Sookie victim blames Tera. <spoiler>Sookie reads Tera's mind to find out that Tera only liked the lavish gifts that the vampire gave her, and Sookie basically says Tera was hanging around the bad vampire for bad reasons so the abuse is Tera's fault or to be expected. Yeah, screw that message.</spoiler>

There are (spoilers about the ending) <spoiler>two reveals at the ending and one of them is predictable and the other one is not as predictable.</spoiler> The surprises in this story didn't make up for Sookie victim blaming Tera though.

I guess overall this was okay but there were certain parts I didn't like, like the ones with Bill or the ones where Sookie gets hurt. It seems someone is trying to <spoiler>hurt her every book at this point.</spoiler> I'm going to give it a 2.75 out of 5.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I listened to this for free on the library app [Libbyapp.com]

The author doesn't even know her own characters' names! How am I supposed to care about them?

As usual, the pacing is atrocious. I couldn't even tell you what the main plot of this book was either. I liked having a break from at least some of the forced romance Sookie has with every single male character, but I could do without the rehashing of every plot point from every previous book. I don't need every character's back story every time Sookie interacts with them. I obviously already know, having read the books. It's like Harris thinks all her readers are Eric when he was under the witch's curse. She does it with everything too, not just the characters! It's all so dang repetitive.

Apparently Sookie's only character trait is her word-of-the-day calendar.

Please, please stop with Bubba. It wasn't even fun in the first book. It's just so dumb, and it adds to the repetition. Every time he pops up we get the whole explanation again about the morgue, how it didn't go quite right, his name, his living situation, cats, his singing, the sightings, etc. Just stop.

I liked learning about the pack rules and ceremonies, and I thought it was interesting seeing Sam deal with the consequences of his injury. I chuckled at him finding ways to still watch over the bar and be the boss even with a bum leg.